One of only three examples graded PSA 8 NM-MT. The offered 1931 W517 #20 Babe Ruth Portrait card may just be the single finest example in existence. This masterpiece is perfectly centered with Mint to Gem Mint corners and edges around an equally impressive image entirely devoid of any print issues remotely suggestive of the NM-MT grade. Even the most astute cardboard aficionado would be hard-pressed to find a single compelling NM-MT attribute. Our guess: the PSA graders didn't like the faint dusting of print rub on its otherwise immaculate reverse, but this is hardly enough to justify demeriting what clearly appears to be a Gem Mint card to NM-MT.

Nevertheless, only two other copies have ever matched its NM-MT 8 status at PSA, the most recent of which sold in a 2017 Memory Lane auction for $4,891, and that copy showed a print imperfection in its background and a clear centering bias for its left border. Moreover, only a single copy has ever graded higher, and while we were unable to locate an image for comparison, that copy is only marginally superior at NM-MT+ 8.5 by PSA. Any way you look at it, this copy would be nearly impossible to improve upon, and even 100 years from now it will still rank as one of the finest copies in existence, if not proven by then to indeed be the single finest W517 Ruth Portrait of them all.